Molded Clay
by emrys-knight
Summary: Jason continues to give Clay a hard time. There may or may not be something he can do to even slightly garner some positivity from him.


_***The Kalahari Desert | Location: Classified***_

"Hit me." Sonny said.

"Are you serious?" Ray asked. "What the Hell is the matter with you?"

"Dude, I don't..." Jason tried.

"Dammit, Davis, just _hit_ me!" Sonny yelled.

"Fine! Fine." Lisa said. She threw a king of hearts to Sonny and the team laughed. Davis flipped the second card to reveal a two of spades. She'd already had a queen of spades on the table. As she gleefully collected everyone's money, frustrated comments ensued.

"Come on!" Jason said. "She would have busted!"

"What're you upset about, Hayes? You got blackjack," Ray asked then turned to Sonny. "What did I say? Don't hit midnight!"

"What?" Davis asked, confused.

"Twelve. You don't hit twelve. It's a superstition," Ray explained. Lisa laughed as she danced around, holding everyone's money.

"Damn house always wins," Sonny grumbled under his breath. Everyone stood up, leaving Davis to count her winnings. They headed over to the big tent at the end of the temporary compound and settled in at the long table.

"Okay. We've got a little more information for this op," Lieutenant Blackburn explained. Before he could continue, Clay burst through the fabric doors and nearly collapsed in the chair at the head of the table, closest to the exit. Jason looked to the soldier and gave him a look of complete frustration. "Spenser," Blackburn acknowledged him coldly.

"Sir?" Clay asked, knowing immediately he was in trouble. He kept a brave facade.

"You're late," Blackburn said darkly. He leveled his steely gaze at Clay. Intimidation tactics might not work on the older operatives, but it sure as hell was working for Spenser.

"Can I explain, sir?" Clay asked. Jason rolled his eyes and leaned back in his seat.

"Try me," the lieutenant said, curious.

"I left my tent an hour ago but someone needed help with fixing their heater in their tent and I thought I could help him and still have enough time to get here," Clay said. He stayed quiet after that, waiting to see what his CO would say.

"You left an hour ago? Your tent is a five minute walk from here," Blackburn said. "Why so early?"

"You're giving me an opportunity, sir. I wanted to be early so I could show you that I'm not going to waste it." Clay, once again, quietly sat in wait.

"Hmm," was all the lieutenant said. He looked back to the whiteboard and bulletin board and began his rundown. "We have three total hostages in this building. Luckily, the local law enforcement wants nothing to do with us or our government. They want us to get in, do our thing, and get out. They're going the route of no trouble for us, no trouble for them."

"How many hostiles?" Ray asked.

"That's the problem. We know Borya has a large army of men and women protecting him and keeping the hostages but we can't see them all. So far, we have an estimation of thirty," Ellis explained. She stood up from her desk at the side of the room.

"Thirty? We can handle that. Why's he here?" Jason asked, pointing to the head of the table. Clay looked down in disappointment and exhaustion. His hero hated him and it seemed he took every chance he got to let him know that.

"He's part of the team, now, Hayes. Get used to it," Blackburn said. Without warning, Jason stood up from the table and stormed out of the tent. Sonny followed close behind.

"We'll talk to him," Ray said, heading out as well.

"Let me know when he cools off. We need to get this done," Ellis said. She went and sat down at her desk.

"Why can't you just give this kid a chance?" Ray asked Jason once they were away from the tent and out of earshot of the rest of the team.

"Yeah, he did pretty good with that one op he helped us with," Sonny added.

"So what? He's just supposed to replace Nate?" Jason asked. He was getting even angrier. Ray watched as Clay slowly dipped out of the tent and sheepishly walked away. Luckily, Jason was too wrapped up in his anger to notice.

"You've got to let him go. You're projecting your problem onto someone who hasn't done anything wrong," Ray said. "That's not fair to the kid."

"Life isn't fair, Ray!" Jason insisted.

"That don't mean you gotta be pissed at this kid for nothin'," Sonny added.

"I'm fine. Just… let's get this done," Jason said. They all walked back into the tent to see Blackburn sitting near the boards.

"I see the tantrum is over," the lieutenant teased. Ellis walked back in as well, jotting things down on her clipboard.

"Where's Spenser?" She asked.

"Guess he quit on us," Jason grumbled under his breath while sitting down. Ray gave him a slight backhanded hit on the arm.

"Right here," Clay said, walking in again. "I was checking on that heater." Clay looked to Ray with slight puppy eyes. Ray nodded and looked back to Blackburn.

"Okay," Blackburn said with a sigh. "Let's get to it."

 **(OP PRACTICE RUN)**

Ray moved through the halls quietly and swiftly. When he got to a corner, he stopped until Jason tapped his shoulder. They turned, took out a guard with their paint guns, and then burst through a door. Inside were three hostages tied to chairs and being guarded by two hostiles each. They had their guns pointed at both the SEALs and the hostages. Jason, Ray, Sonny and Clay shot at the hostiles, dropping all six. The hostages hadn't a single drop of paint on them.

"Yahtzee," Sonny joked gleefully. The team untied the hostages, and began escorting them out of the building. As they were almost out, two tangos quickly came out from behind two corners and began shooting at the SEALs. They swiftly got to cover, returned fire, and the two hostiles were down. They once again made their way towards the exit. When they got out, the lieutenant showed them their time.

"Four minutes and fifty eight seconds," Blackburn said.

"That's gotta be a new record or somethin'," Sonny said. Ray laughed and the two fist bumped.

"Let's run it again," Jason said, twirling his finger in the air.

"Wait, what?" Ray asked.

"Let's run it again," Jason repeated.

"No, I didn't mean for you to say it again. I meant: 'Why the Hell are we running again if we already did a perfect job?' You feel me?" Ray asked. He figured it had to be about Clay somehow, and the ridiculous grudge the man had against the guy.

"Spenser, you need to move and shoot faster this time. We were near perfect. Let's get it perfect this time, huh?" Jason said.

 _Whoomp! There it is._ Ray thought. The roleplayers got back into position and the team did the same. Once again, Blackburn timed their run.

When they finished the re-run, Jason got in Clay's face and began lecturing him on how slow he was and how he could get people killed.

"Sir, I did it faster than I did last time," Clay said, trying to keep calm and be polite to his commanding officer.

"He did a good job, Hayes. Stop giving him such a hard time," Blackburn finally said. He'd gotten tired of seeing the poor behavior of one of his top operators.

"What's he gonna do? Get upset and write a book about me?" Jason asked. He knew, in that moment, that it was wrong.

"Okay," Clay said.

"Okay?" Jason asked.

"Look...I _hate_ that book!" Clay yelled. Jason had a shocked look on his face. "What? You think I liked it? You think I liked how my old man only cared how it would affect him and not anyone else? You think I like how I have to bust my ass to show that I deserve to be here? You think I like how I have to prove every single day that I'm not my dad? Hell, the man haunts me! I'm sitting there, nearly drowning in SERE training and you know what I see? The son of a bitch is pulling me under water trying to _kill_ me! And you know what?! The only thing people know about me is that bastard's book! I have to work ten times as hard as those other guys to show that I'm not anything like him and that I deserve to be a SEAL. If you've got a problem, get in line and let him know but stop acting like I'm a damn cancer to you!" He pushed Jason in the chest and stormed off.

"Damn," Ray said. Jason looked back and saw the sympathy in everyone's eyes. The guy sure did have that golden retriever effect on people. Jason made his way to his tent to cool off, even if it took the rest of his life.

"Drop in five, four, three, two, one!" The helicopter pilot said. As he did, the team jumped out of the chopper.

"Deploy!" Ray yelled. The team all deployed their parachutes and slowly fell to the ground. They disengaged their gear and made their way to the compound. The door came off easily and everyone moved in formation through the halls.

It was just like the practice runs. Ray got to the corner, Jason tapped his shoulder and they got to the hostage room. When they did, the hostages were dead and the hostiles fully armed and ready to fight.

"Son of a bitch," Sonny said.

"You know any Zulu, Spenser?" Ray asked.

"A little," Clay answered. He looked at the men and gave it his best. "Bafaka izikhali zakho phansi." The men laughed.

"What did you say?" Sonny asked.

"Put your weapons down," Clay answered. As he did, one of the men took out a grenade, yanked the pin out and threw it towards the SEALs. The hostiles ran out of the door that was behind them, getting away from the blast. When the explosive hit the ground, Clay kicked it as far as he could. The doorway was too slim for all of them to get out as quickly as they would have liked. Ray and Sonny made it out but Jason and Clay were left inside. Jason stood near the door and tried to get Clay to leave but he wouldn't. He pushed Jason through the door, turned a table over and got as far against the wall as he could, absorbing as little of the blast as he could manage.

"Spenser!" Jason yelled. They took cover and the grenade went off. The SEALs rushed into the room to find Clay unconscious with a piece of metal in the far left side of his stomach. "Wake up. Come on, kid, wake up."

"We gotta get out of here. Exfil is in two minutes." Sonny said. Jason helped Ray carry Clay out of the room. As soon as they got out of the compound, backup was arriving in a helicopter and they laid him down on the floor. He was slowly waking up, groaning and in pain.

"Take it out! Take it out!" Clay yelled as he fully came to. With every little bit of turbulence, he yelped.

"We can't. It could be the thing keeping you from bleeding out, you know that!" Jason said. "You're gonna be okay, kid."

"Please. _Please_ take it out," Clay begged. Right as he did, the team's medic injected him with a sedative and almost instantly his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

"Damn," Sonny said. "This kid's already been through a lot."

Clay slowly started to wake up from the anesthesia. He looked to where the metal used to be and let out a frustrated sigh. He knew he'd have to take a lot of time off to recover. No ops for a long time. Too long. He looked over to see Jason sitting in the chair next to his bed.

"What are you doing here?" Clay asked with a raspy voice. He was still groggy from the drugs.

"Getting free Jell-O," Jason answered. He lifted the cup of gelatin so it was within Spenser's line of sight.

"Okay, then," Clay said. Ray and Sonny walked in and sat in the other two chairs on the opposite side of Jason.

"How ya feelin', bud?" Sonny asked.

"Million bucks," Clay answered. "...In debt."

"Sounds about right," Ray laughed.

"Hey, can you guys give us the room?" Jason asked. Clay's head whipped around and his heart suddenly started to race.

"Aw man. I _just_ sat down," Sonny complained. "It's like church with my grandparents. Stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down." Ray tapped his shoulder and the two walked out of the room to leave Jason and Clay alone once again.

"You could have died," Jason said, semi-angrily.

"I'm aware..." Clay replied, slightly, confused.

"Why did you do that? You were mad at me," Jason said.

"Not during the mission, I wasn't," Clay started. He sat up with a groan. "I left my anger on the chopper."

"Huh." Jason said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Clay asked.

"Means you're a good SEAL," Jason said.

"Oh," Clay said, somewhat shocked.

"Was uh… Was what you said true? About seeing your old man trying to kill you in SERE?" Jason asked.

"Yeah. It was," Clay said. He sighed.

"Well I'm sorry to hear that. Sounds rough," Jason said. He gave Clay a slight pat on the shin and left the room.

"I think he likes you," Sonny laughed as he and Ray walked back inside.

"How much did you get?" Clay asked.

"Enough," Ray said. "But you know… I mishear things all the time."

"Yeah, me, too. I'm not even sure if I heard what Ray just said," Sonny joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Right. Thanks," Clay said. The two nodded and Ray turned the TV on.

"Oh man! You gotta watch Spanish soap operas!" Sonny said, excited.

"What? Why?" Clay asked.

"It's so much fun trying to figure out what they're so upset about! Or sometimes, you can make up your own story that doesn't match how they look like they're feeling!" Sonny answered.

"What the Hell is the matter with you?" Ray asked.

"You ain't got time for that, brother," Sonny replied with a wink. All three SEALs laughed. Clay groaned as he grabbed at his wound, but his smile never faltered. Maybe the team really was all the family you needed.


End file.
